


hail to victory (second champion is not surrender)

by friendly_ficus



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: A little angst, For someone who is terrible at writing fights I sure did write a fic about them, Gen, I have a lot of feelings about the Crucible okay, look this takes place during the timeskip so it COULD HAVE happened like this, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 15:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11382924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/friendly_ficus/pseuds/friendly_ficus
Summary: Sometimes you take a year off, sometimes you go to Vasselheim with your best buddy and become Second Champion of the Crucible.





	hail to victory (second champion is not surrender)

  It begins like this: Grog has fought in the Crucible a few times now, and Pike has been there to cheer him on as loud as she can, until the end of each fight. He wins and wins again, defending his title against challengers. An old rival (and he is only a rival, how strange to have an opponent who is not truly an enemy after so long fighting to save the world) is defeated again, and when Kern the Hammer asks Grog to teach him, her brother declines. Grog doesn’t think he should be teaching anyone anything. (Pike thinks of the way he spoke to Keyleth about Raishan, and _oh Grog, you’re already a teacher_. She does not tell him this.) Pike thinks she’s more proud of Grog than he will ever know. She also thinks _hey, I do want to keep my skills sharp. Why not try this out, just to see what it’s like?_

  It begins like this: Grog says, “Pike, I’m feeling kinda itchy- I’m gonna go find a fight. Do you wanna come with me?” And this is her brother, and Pike agrees. She’s been feeling restless too- Whitestone is as lovely as a city with a mysterious orb of death beneath its surface can be, but it’s too safe now. And Pike wants to go and read, and check on the temple in Vasselheim that had been her home for a while. She needs to look at the rebuilding, needs to touch the walls with her own hands before she will be satisfied with the progress. Whitestone is building itself back up from the Briarwoods, but that’s Percy’s rebuilding. Pike needs to continue her own.

  It begins like this: Pike loves healing, loves mending what is broken. She also loves a good fight. There’s a rhythm to it, the crunch of bone and knuckles and labored breathing. The weight of her mace, swinging- there’s more than one holy thing left in the world, and Pike knows how to find the divine all around her. (She thinks that Vox Machina forgets, sometimes, that Pike is a Dragonslayer too. Grog remembers, Grog calls her “monstah” and he _knows_ she is strong. She tells herself that it is enough, when the rest of their group is surprised by something she says. _Grog knows who I am, look at him! He’s never surprised, he’s impressed!_ )

  It begins like this: Pike is praying over Grog’s body before she really knows his name, long before he is her brother. Wilhand brings this barbarian to her and asks her to try, says he was protected and that Grog is a good man. Pike bows her head and prays and thinks _death can’t have you_. It’s funny, because she’s only ever known healing as mending the body, helping the natural processes along. Here is a moment of clarity, sure as the first rays of the dawn, as the whisper of Sarenrae in the back of her mind: to heal is to fight death. Pike has always been a fighter.

\---

  Before she fights, they ask her if she wants another name- Grog was Phillip once, and there is no shame in it. Many fight in the Crucible under different titles, preventing their opponents from gathering too much information before the fight begins. “Whoever you’re trying to prove something to, they’ll see you no matter what you call yourself.” But Pike has carried the Trickfoot name with her across continents, across planes, through fights far greater than this one. The desire for redemption, to someday go back to her family and find them respected and honest and good, it’s not something she can set aside so easily.

  “My name is Trickfoot. Write that in your betting books.” And they do, and the crowd shouts it all through her fights, and the odds are calculated under that name. Pike is for allies and friends and family, for “Pickle” and fun buns and “Monstah” and resurrections. The name Trickfoot has always been something she wants to prove. There is a letter back in her room, and after this fight she’s going to send it.

  _Dear JB and company,_

_I know it has been a really long time, but I wanted to let you know what I’ve been doing. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things..._

\---

  The night before she plans to fight, Pike is sitting on the floor in Grog’s room. He’s sitting across from her, like they used to in Wilhand’s garden when they were first really getting to know each other. They sat like this when Grog first told her about Kevdak, when Pike told him about the void where the rest of her family just... wasn’t. They sat like this when they argued about what place in Westruun sold the best meat pies. This moment, Pike and Grog facing each other on the floor or the grass or a dirt path, it’s happened a thousand different ways. It always means safety.

  “Grog,” and her voice wavers a little bit, “you know it’s okay if I don’t win tomorrow. I’ll still be happy that I came here with you.”

  “You’re gonna win, Pike.” He says it like it’s a fact, and when Grog speaks in that tone of voice Pike can’t help but believe him. (Grog has such conviction- he rarely shows it but when he knows something is true, he speaks like the mountains themselves would bend to him. That one of the things he knows is _Pike_ , well, it’s immeasurably comforting.)

\---

  The first time Pike steps into the Crucible, her opponent is a human fighter- taller than her with light hair, a wry twist to his mouth when he sees who he is fighting. Pike grins, waves at him, and resolutely does not think about Percy. This man has a longsword, not one of Percy’s terrible, wonderful inventions. (Of course, Percy also stabbed a dragon with a sword in his own castle. No matter what means are available to him, Percy’s very good at making destruction look elegant.) Pike steadies herself, and launches into the fight.

  It’s a good bout, not as dragged out as some of her fights will be (and have been, dragons were not easily conquered) and fighting without the weight of the world on her shoulders- this is as free as Pike has felt in a long time. The first time she heals herself, the man’s eyes go wide and he suddenly looks less confident. (Pike is used to being underestimated, she’s small and less well known than some members of her family- she’s not the heir to a dynasty or a bloodline or the legacy of a people. She’s a cleric, and she does not walk into every battle at the side of Vox Machina.) She straightens up, grins despite how it pulls at the new scabs on her cheek. Grog is cheering at the top of his lungs, loud enough to echo through the ring. She keeps fighting.

  Later, after Pike renders the man unconscious, after celebratory drinks in the tavern with Grog, she sits down in her room to write a letter. Pike loves Grog, he is her brother, but she misses the rest of their family too.

  _Dear Percy,_

_How are the improvements to Whitestone coming? Tell me everything you can in a letter, I’ll be coming to visit soon and you can explain more then._

_How is everyone doing? How are you doing? I hope you’re feeling as good as I am right now, you’ll never guess what I did today..._

\---

  The second time Pike fights in the Crucible, the odds on her have increased significantly. People know more about what she can do (a sketch of her abilities, the bookies know a pale image of who Pike is and calculate their odds accordingly) and this time her opponent looks at her with more respect. Grog is not the only one cheering for her.

  This time she fights a rogue, double daggers and all, and the fight is more fast-paced than the last. The rogue is quicker than her, but Pike is used to fighting alongside someone who moves almost too quickly to see. Who can also fly. So no, despite the initial similarities (two daggers, rogue stuff... that’s basically it) Pike does not have to work hard to keep Vax from her mind. That’s good, it frees up more of her concentration. She swings her mace- it’s going to miss, this is the final blow and it’s going to _miss_ \- and reaches for the place inside her that is made of war. She manages to change the trajectory _just enough_ , and then it’s another knockout to her name.

  Gold changes hands above her, and Pike pants from the exertion of the fight, and she feels so _fucking awesome_ , _has it always felt this good to be strong?_ Grog yells out, “That’s my buddy PIKE! MONSTAH!” She waves at him before making her way out of the ring.

  Later, after drinks in the tavern, after Grog leans over and blurts out “he was fast, yeah, but I knew you’d win it Pike, I knew you would,” Pike sits down and writes..

  _~~Dear~~ ~~Hello~~ Hi Vax,_

 _How’s Vesrah? How’s Keyleth? How are you? I want to know everything. (Well, use your best judgement. I don’t need to know everything_ _you’ve been doing.)_

_I got in this fight today- Not like a fight-fight, let me explain. I’ve started fighting in the Crucible here in Vasselheim..._

\---

  The third time Pike fights in the Crucible, she faces a bard. He is not Scanlan- that is easy to notice, what with the lack of warmth and home and family- but Pike hesitates, just a little. He is not wearing armor, and she thinks _maybe I don’t want to fight him_.

  The bard is quick, perceptive, and he sees her hesitate. Lowers his voice, like they’re friends sharing a secret, and “I don’t really want to do this either, my friends dared me into it. Could you cut me some slack, and throw the match?” And it curls around her mind, seeps into her skin with hooks to snare, and the bard looks more like Scanlan than she thought, she can almost hear him singing-

  Grog’s voice cuts through the haze, his usual cheer- “Crush ‘im, Pike!” She hadn’t- how come she hadn’t heard him cheering earlier? He keeps a steady stream of encouragement going through every fight. Something is _not right-_

  She shakes her head and the haze clears, and she’s looking up at an unfamiliar face and hears an unfamiliar voice crooning. She knows this is a tactic, knows this is a fight, but there is a moment of real anger, of _how dare you_. She turns to stone, and _moves._ After the first round, she’s more alert. It isn’t Scanlan, not safety and laughter. This is a fight. She fights.

  They still celebrate that night, Pike and Grog, but this time they sit across from each other on the floor of her room. This is the way they sit when they share secrets. This is something that means trust, means safety. They tell each other the truth, even when it hurts.

  “I miss Scanlan,” Grog tells her- like it’s a secret, like she might not know.

  Pike takes an extra-large gulp of ale, and pretends the tears in her eyes are from difficulty swallowing. “Me too,” like it’s a secret.

  Grog nods, and she wonders if this is something that Grog has put his conviction in, if the mountains would bend. She doesn’t ask- some things, once you know them, hurt too much to bear.

  Grog falls asleep in her room that night, and once he’s snoring steadily Pike touches her earring-

_“Hey Scanlan, you don’t know this but I’ve been fighting in the Crucible and it’s been great and Grog’s been cheering for me and I’ve been winning but we miss you...”_

\---

  It ends like this: Half the crowd is chanting “Grog! Grog! Grog!” and half is calling out “Trick-foot! Trick-foot! Trick-foot!” She stands and looks up at Grog and grins, like they’re young in Westruun again and they’ve been running through town all day, open and honest and happy. This is her brother, there is a strength in him that Pike will never belittle or deny.

  It ends like this: If Pike strains her ears she can almost hear the clank of coins, odds being calculated and bets made. Fortunes of more than one kind are won and lost in the Crucible. It’s almost annoying- this is about honor, about proving oneself in honest combat. It’s not about making some fast coin. (She thinks of Vex, briefly, because _gold_ and _Vex_ are tied together in the minds of Vox Machina so tightly that one cannot think of gold without thinking of Vex. It’s a river, carrying her from one passing thought to another. She misses Vex- Vex and Percy and Vax and Keyleth and Scanlan and even Tary, despite how little she knows him. _I really should visit them soon, at least whoever’s in Whitestone._ )

  It ends like this: Pike never forgets that this is a place of worship, that there is a strength here that cannot be explained by mortal means. She wonders what Kord is like, if it’s easier to follow a deity of battle than a deity of redemption. (There is a world where Pike Trickfoot is a different cleric altogether. She still fights and she still heals, but it’s not the same at all.) She thinks of Sarenrae, of a temple being slowly restored by the faithful. _Someday, I’ll make it as great as this place. People will feel you there, I promise. Different than this, but not_ so _different._

  It ends like this: Grog moves and Pike moves and neither pays attention to who moves first. The important part is that they’re shaking hands, grinning at each other like they did back in Westruun before they’d ever even seen a dragon. Grog tells her, “Two monsters of a feather... stay in... leather?” and she laughs and nods. “Two monsters of a feather.” Grog is her brother, Grog is an imprint pressed into her soul that she has been forever changed by, Grog knows that she is strong. She takes second place with pride and without bitterness. (Grog knows how strong Pike is, he never needs reminding. The Crucible is still important, though. The Crucible is a reminder for Pike alone, a reminder that she has proven herself, a reminder that she is strong. Grog never forgets it, but sometimes when she’s away from him and their family, Pike does.) They go to the tavern and drink and laugh, without a rift between them. Pike does not write any more letters.

  It ends like this: Pike is praying before she goes to sleep, and her face is sore from smiling. _I know you’re there,_ she begins, _and I don’t know if the two of you talk or anything, if you’re friends or not, but Kord has a good thing going with this Crucible. If he’s anything like Grog then you_ must _be friends, so you probably already know what happened there, but let me give you the play-by-play anyway..._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not very good at writing fights, but I was watching episode 95 again and having Feelings about Pike, as usual. I was gonna have a fight against someone that could parallel every member of Vox Machina but Grog, then I got tired of it so this is what you get. I still like it pretty well. Thanks for reading! (In regards to there being weapons in the Crucible... I literally forgot that they don't fight with weapons lol)


End file.
